Author Interview: Kate Larkindale and Standing Too Close Giveaway and IWSG Post

 Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today I’m excited to have Kate Larkindale, part of the IWSG, here to share about her YA contemporary Standing Too Close, which releases on 8/5/2025. It sounds like a gripping story with high stakes, and I’m looking forward to reading it. 

Here’s a blurb from Amazon:

Seventeen-year-old Blue Lannigan believes in exactly one thing: his two younger brothers deserve more than the crappy apartment and abusive, drunken mother they’re stuck with. And when he comes home to find one brother bruised and bleeding (again), the other cowering in terror (again) and their mother drunk off her ass, blaming all three of them for her tanked singing career (again), Blue decides waiting until he’s 18 to leave is no longer an option.

Deciding to hole up in an empty house at the lake until Blue can figure out what to do next, things get more complicated when the owner of the house arrives unexpectedly. Especially when Blue realizes the unconscious woman they’ve tied up on the couch isn’t a stranger after all, but someone who could give him just what he’s looking for.

After avoiding reality and playing house, a scene at the grocery store lands him in handcuffs and his brothers with a social worker. Add to that losing his job and being stuck in a group home he hates, and Blue’s sole purpose becomes finding his brothers and getting them out of whatever hellhole they’re in. Blue’s hopes unravel, and betrayal rips his heart in two as he tries to reconcile the role he plays in his brothers’ lives while trying to figure out his own.

Before I get to Kate’s interview, I have my IWSG post. 

Posting: The first Wednesday is officially Insecure Writer's Support Group Day. 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts this month are:  Rebecca Douglass, Cathrina Constantine, Louise Barbour and me! 

Optional Question: Is there a genre you haven’t tried writing in yet that you really want to try? If so, do you plan on trying it? 

I read a lot of mysteries and have been getting into cozy fantasies, which sometimes involve solving a mystery. I’d like to write a YA cozy mystery or cozy mystery/fantasy someday. I have some ideas about the characters and setting. 

Will I ever write one? I really can’t say. I’m pretty busy with the blog, my crocheting, and life in general lately, so I haven’t been writing too much. I don’t know if I’ll just revise the manuscripts I’ve written or start this new project. I’m taking it day by day and am okay with this approach for now.

Interview With Kate Larkindale 

Hi Kate! Thanks so much for joining us. 

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer. 

I’ve always written, ever since I was a little kid.  My first story was published in the Kidstuff pages of our local newspaper when I was six and I never really stopped.  For a while, when I was a teenager and young adult, it was kind of a clandestine thing I did in secret and never told anyone about, but then I decided to try and publish some of the things I’d written and “came out” as a writer. 

After moving to a new country every two or three years throughout my childhood, I now live in New Zealand where I work for a company that produces live arts events and experiences. I recently pushed myself way out of my comfort zone by becoming a group fitness instructor at my gym. 

2. Where did you get the idea for Standing Too Close? 

I think this is a story I’ve been trying to write for years, to deal with something that happened to a friend of mine.  All my other attempts to write his story were too literal and close to the bone and never worked.  Standing Too Close takes the core of his story and spins it in a very different direction to what actually happened.  And I managed to finish it this time.  Phew! 

Your Writing Process 

3. Did you plot this story out, or were you a pantser? Share about your plotting process. 

I am probably the most chaotic writer on the planet!  I can’t plot.  If I try to write an outline of a novel, I never write it because I know what’s going to happen.  I tend to start by writing the scene that sparks me the most, whether that’s at the beginning, the middle or the end.  I usually don’t know when I write that first scene, where it might end up.  I just use it as a starting point and write both ways around it until I have a book.  I know it probably makes no sense to anyone else, but this is a process that’s worked for me across multiple books now, so I’m sticking to it.  

I recently decided to try and write something in order, from start to finish and wound up writing 30K words twice (taking the story in different directions) before realizing it was hopeless and I’d written the story from the wrong POV character.  So I went back to my usual messy, chaotic writing style and am comfortably about 2/3 of the way through the new book - now written from the other characters POV.   Still not 100% sure where it’s going to start, but I have written the ending.  Always good to have something to aim for, even if I have no clue how I’ll get there. 

4. It’s fascinating to learn about your plotting process. Blue is a complicated character. Did you know his character when you started this manuscript, or did he develop as you wrote it? What are your tips for writing in a story from a male POV? 

A lot of Blue developed as I wrote him.  Because I had my friend and his story as the starting point, I pulled a lot of stuff from him and his brothers and the way they related to one another, but as the book grew, the characters took on lives of their own and no one really resembles their real-life counterparts anymore.  I really enjoyed writing Blue because he’s very mature and old for his years in some ways, but also very, very immature in others. 

I’ve always been comfortable writing a male POV.  Most of my friends growing up were boys and I have two sons, so I’m around male voices a lot.  

5. It’s cool you feel so comfortable writing from a guy’s POV. You have a day job in addition to being a writer. How do you juggle the two and keep writing manuscripts that are ready to be submitted to your editor regularly? 

I actually have two day jobs and finding time to write on top is often a struggle.  I get up at 5:30 every morning so I can get time to write and do writing-related chores (like doing this interview… it’s 5:45am here as I write this) before I have to go to work.  I also make sure I get some time over the weekends to write, even if it is just one afternoon.  And I occasionally take a day off work to devote to writing and take my laptop to the library or somewhere else quiet and work for a full day. 

I’m lucky to have a fantastic critique group too, as well as an established group of readers who give me feedback and help me whip my messy-ass first drafts into something resembling an actual book. 

Your Journey to Publication 

6. Your publisher is Evernight Teen. How did you get your first contract with them? What has it been like submitting subsequent manuscripts to them? 

My first published novel, An Unstill Life, was published by a publisher that went out of business about 18 months or so after publication, so I was looking for opportunities for that book and submitted it to Evernight Teen because they took previously published work if you had the rights.  It was a great process and the book sold reasonably well, so when I had my next one ready to go, I decided to send them that too. 

All the books I’ve published with Evernight have been “editor’s picks” and I feel like I have a pretty good relationship with them now.  I like the fact I get a lot of input into the cover art and can usually work with them to pick a release date that works with my marketing and publicity timeline. 

7. I know from following your blog that you’re also trying to find an agent to represent you. Why did you decide to do this, and how are you tackling this? 

I’ve had an agent before and I really miss having that kind of partnership in my career.  I went it alone after losing my last agent because the whole experience was horrible and quite traumatizing, but it’s been long enough now, that I’m over that, I really want to have someone in my corner with me again.  I don’t feel like I can advance my career to the level I’d like to without an agent’s help. 

So I’m back in the query trenches, looking for an agent for a book that is kind of a spin off from Standing Too Close in the sense that some of the research I did for that book led to me finding the story I wanted to tell in A Stranger to Kindness. 

Promoting Your Book 

8. How are you planning to promote Standing Too Close? How have your marketing strategies changed over the years? 

I’ve worked with a company called Itsy Bits Book Bits on my last couple of releases and had great results from a 3 week online book tour, so I’m doing that around release week in August.  I also reach out to book bloggers to get reviews - reviews are so important!  I’m in that process now, since I have ARCs available.  And of course, there’s social media.  I’m not great at social media and I don’t like it much, but it’s an unfortunate reality these days, that you have to do it.   So, I’m trying to be more active across the social platforms I use and to post about the book once or twice a week until release day. 

9. That’s great that you found a company to arrange your blog tours. What are you working on now? 

I’m writing a new novel which doesn’t have a firm title yet.  It’s about a couple of kids living on the street and the friendship they develop.  I’m calling it a platonic love story and it’s told through one of the characters’ journal entries as he tries to keep himself from becoming a drug addict while managing chronic pain. 

And then I surprised myself by also starting an MG novel.  I’ve never written for that age group before, but this story just wouldn’t leave me alone, so I started writing it.  No idea where it’ll go, but it’s kind of fun to have something a little more innocent to work on when I need a break from the other book which is quite dark and heavy. 

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Kate. You can find Kate at: 

Blog: http://katelarkindale.blogspot.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4086706.Kate_Larkindale?

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kate-Larkindale/author/B00HWQDU4S?

BookBub: https://partners.bookbub.com/authors/5227615/edit

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKateLarkindale

Instagram/Threads/Bluesky: @Vampyr14

Standing Too Close is available for pre-sale now at all your favorite e-book retailers and will be available in print in around September. 

Giveaway Details 

Kate is generously offering a pre-order of an e-book of Standing Too Close for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by July 12th. If I do not have your email (I can no longer get it from your Google Profile), you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address. 

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites and/or follow me on Twitter or Bluesky or follow Kate on her social media sites, mention this in the comments, and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This book giveaway is International. 

Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops 

My schedule is a little lighter this month because I’m going to visit family with my daughter this month.

Monday, July 7th I have an interview with author Natalie Richards and a giveaway of her MG Survive This Safari

Monday, July 14th I have an interview with debut author Sarah Mendonca with a giveaway of her MG An Enchantora's Guide to Monstros & Magic

Wednesday, July 16th I’m participating in the Hip Hip Hooray Giveaway Hop

Monday, July 28th I have an interview with author Marzieh Abbas and a giveaway of her MG Aarzu All Around

Wednesday, July 30^th I have an agent spotlight interview with Taj McCoy and a query critique giveaway 

I hope to see you on Monday!